Starting in college, I used to buy a new computer every two years.
However, I kept the PC that I built when I returned from Japan in 1999
until the release of Windows Vista. Looking back on it, that was probably
too long. I'm catching up with the latest technology, and recently I've
been buying or building a new computer about once a year. I didn't
build a machine in 2008 (just added drives to Durga, mostly), but I'm back
on track after building Gauri this year, and I'm also planning a Core i7
small form factor build.
Aparna is my mid tower built
in early 2007 to replace the aging Shakti as my primary PC. It's used
for email, gaming, multimedia, web development, doing my taxes, etc. I
downgraded from Vista to XP, mainly because the video and sound drivers
were initially horrible for Vista, but they've gotten better. Now that
I have a Playstation 3, I do less PC gaming, so I'm not in a big hurry
to upgrade, but I'll see what happens with Windows 7 approaching.
Gauri is my newest machine,
built in January 2009 so that I could have a high-powered workstation to
play around with without breaking my primary desktop PC. It's also used
for distributed computing projects, which is why I added a bunch of
graphics cards for GPU processing power.
Lalitha is a home theater
PC (HTPC) originally built in 2005, but almost completely upgraded in the
summer of 2007. It's located in the TV stand in the living room, and I
added an Ethernet jack to the wall separating it from my office so that
it's on the same gigabit network as the rest of my machines. I primarily
use it for two things: recording TV shows (especially movies off of
TCM, but also HD network broadcasts) and
watching downloaded anime fansubs.
Durga is my Windows Home Server
machine. It began life as a Pentium II tower that I purchased dirt cheap
at a gov't sale in the spring of 2002. I originally used it as a Linux
server, but I started pulling parts out to keep Shakti running. I liked
the tower case, so in 2007 I gutted it completely and used the old hardware
from Lalitha along with lots of hard drives to create the current WHS setup.
I really love WHS, especially for its backup functionality.
Uma is my Dell laptop purchased
in 2006, mainly for travel. I love being able to take my recorded
TV on the road; I watched eight movies on a road trip to Nashville.
I bought my parents a wireless router so I can use my laptop when I visit
them (which came in handy when they got a Wii this Christmas). I upgraded
the laptop to Vista Ultimate, and despite a few early hiccups it's been
pretty solid.
Amba is one of two identical Pentium II machines I picked up
at the same gov't sale where I bought Durga. It came with a 400 MHz processor,
128 MB of RAM, 100Mbps Ethernet card, and the same Asus motherboard as Shakti.
I scavenged RAM to bump it up to 384MB and bought a 120GB Quantum IDE hard
drive to go with a 40GB drive (now dead) that I pulled from Shakti. At first,
Amba had tons of storage compared to my SCSI machines so I used it as a file
server. Later, so that I could have a standalone PC rather than relying on
the KVM switch, I added a 19" Dell LCD monitor and keyboard, a Logitech
mouse, and a wireless network card. Now Amba is back on the KVM and sharing
the monitor, keyboard, and mouse with Durga and Shakti. Amba is currently
used as a dedicated bittorrent machine with locked-down security. The
Ethernet card was starting to flake out, so I swapped it with a USRobotics
Gigabit card from Shakti.
Shakti was a Pentium III gaming
powerhouse that I built when I returned from Japan in 1999. I had missed out
on a lot of 3D gaming while stuck with a laptop, and I was anxious to get
back into the scene. However, dial-up couldn't compare to my old campus
Ethernet connection (or even ISDN), and gaming hardware requirements
continued to grow, so Shakti mostly became an Internet/multimedia workstation.
It is finally retired and usually turned off, but I plan to use it to test
some of the old hardware I have sitting around. (For example, I have a stack
of three SCSI CD/DVD drives, and I have no idea if they work or not.) Shakti
is now in a case identical to Amba's, and the old case was used for
Gauri.
Parvati is the laptop I bought
in 1997 to take with me to Japan. Unfortunately I couldn't wait for the PII
laptops that were due in a few months, and I was never really satisfied with
this machine. Still, it kept me online for most of two years. Now that I
have a new laptop, this one is probably headed for the trash bin.
Miscellaneous hardware: I have a Linksys wireless router
connected to my cable modem, and a Netgear 8-port gigabit switch hooked to
that. There's another Netgear 5-port gigabit switch on the other side of
the wall behind the TV. (I have one free port on each switch.) I have a
Brother HL-2070N laser printer on the network for use by all the PCs.
There's a Cybex (now Avocent) SwitchView 4-port KVM which is used to connect
Amba, Durga, and Shakti to the Dell LCD, since Aparna is hooked to my primary
monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Aparna is plugged into an APC Smart-UPS 1000,
and the other PCs and network equipment are plugged into an APC Smart-UPS
1000XL with add-on XL 24V Battery Pack.
The picture above is my old setup. From left to right beneath the desk are
Shakti, Amba, and Durga. The small white box in between Shakti and Amba was
my UPS, which has been replaced with a SmartUPS 1000. To the right of the
monitor are my old inkjet printer (now trashed) and, above it, the Microtek
SCSI scanner (no longer in use, replaced by the Epson). The edge of the scanner
can be seen on top of the file cabinet in the picture at the top of the page.
Amba and Shakti are still there, and Aparna is on top of the desk along with
the Brother laser printer. The Logitech sub is under the desk, along with
the SmartUPS. The KVM is on top of Amba. Since the picture was taken, I've
swapped some things around again.
I basically have four PCs that are running 24/7, so I decided to have
them do something useful (besides run µTorrent, record TV, and receive
email). I've started running
Folding@home clients on some of
my machines. Since my Playstation 3 is also on 24/7, I run a client on
it as well. I joined the
AVS Forum
team because they are active (with lots of PS3 users) and it's also a great
forum that was helpful when I was buying my plasma TV. You can track my
progress at KakaoStats
or just look at the image below.
